Burnout 3 10/10

[Tiki]

it's not even a series high let alone a 9 or 10! 1 and 2 were far better games IMO. anyway, I'm off to a non-BO3 thread where I won't get hated on as much

Take it to a pro evo thread you cunt.

[zxcvbnm]

Last night I finally beat the circuit racer GP, but missed gold by 1 position on the final race - if they think I'll play through that again to get the gold they've got another thing coming - it wasn't fun to play at all.

Got it up to 89% and thats it for me - just multiplayer from now on.

Does anyone else think Burnout 2 is better? Especially the crash mode.

[layten]

Let's be honest.

If dull Gran Turismo can get a 10, so can BO3.

How does GT stand up to the test of time? It doesn't it's rubbish.

I still play GT3 now.

[roskelld]

I got as far as the F1/Indy style car GP's and gave up after three days of not being able to win a race no matter how good I performed.

It was those GPs that really highlighted the problems with the game. "Psych Out" is just another term for "Poor A.I". How is it that if you are behind the opposing cars (so that they are off screen) you can race around staying at a steady, say, 5-10 seconds behind, which would mean that if you don't crash for a minute or so, and are still the same distance behind then the A.I mustn't have crashed either. So why is it that when the A.I cars are visible, you see them crashing left, right and centre?

and the catch-up in the game is awful, again it really shines on the F1 GPs. I have on many occasions took down nearly all the other opponents in one quick sitting, used my turbo to accelerate away, only to find them, not only catch me back up, but overtake me while I'm still turboing?!?!

I've even seen other cars crash out, and appear in front of me as I’m racing away.

They pushed it all too far, and offering 3-5 unlockable items per race becomes so much a diluted experience that you really give up caring. How many people can really say that they pick a particular car in a series other than the fasted one? It's nothing compared to BO2 where it really had a good range of varied vehicles.

Rant over, conclusion, BO3 goes from Fun > Infuriating, definitely not a 10/10 game

[routeburn]

in 3 they just seemed to have chucked as many unmemorable junctions in as possible.

That's the key word, right there.

How many people, when talking about Burnout 3, will say "hey, do you remember that great crash junction X, where the juggernaut comes in from the left and you bounce off a fire engine if you use aftertouch to the right?".

They won't. There's not one memorable element of Burnout 3. The cars? No (apart from maybe the F1-style car). The tracks? No. Any particular events? No.

[mexos]

ive got to say that it feels hollow.

i loved burnout 1 & 2 but i think the've fundamentally changed the charecteristics of the game & in the process made it a poorer game.

takedowns will never be as much fun as chaining.

anyone else noticed how much slower it is than the first two games?

[JedEvangelion]

I'm glad it's not me. I've been quietly getting annoyed at all the bits mentioned above, plus plenty more.

It's still fun to play, as a quick blast, but it's severely broken in a lot of places, and it doesn't take long for that to become apparent.

Game of the Year? Certainly not, that to me seems a bizarre assumption. Most polished game of the year? Arguably so. But I'm too jaded to be impressed by a layer of surface gloss for very long, even if it is 3 inches thick and polished until it shines.

Generally I think an unhealthy number of people are getting a bit about it already.

[Robo_1]

So the inevitable backlash has begun eh.

[Rowan Morrison]

They won't. There's not one memorable element of Burnout 3.

There are a couple, to be fair - the aftertouch is, as has been said already, a good development (except the camera cripples it 90% of the time) and I'll fondly remember racing in the muscle cars underneath the bridge with all the support columns. But crucially, I'll be remembering it rather than replaying it.

The more I think about it, the more I might trade this in for Outrun 2 and maybe get BO2 again, because I really played a lot of time trial in that, and in BO3 the time trial doesn't interest me at all - the lack of chaining, really. You just have pretty much constant boost, which is dull once you've gotten over the sensation of speed...

[spanx]

I think you're all mad.

Either that, or I'm a middlecore loser

[Boutros]

I'm a big fan of the game. There are 2 major gripes though:

1) I Hate rubberband races. In BO3, you're just awarded for a 2 lap full afterburner crashless stint. You opponents just keep tailing you, no matter what.

2) The cars are very, VERY uninspired and dull.

[zxcvbnm]

There's no backlash from me - its still a great game, but I prefer the mechanics of Burnout 2. The track layout was better, the cars more controllable, and more importantly each car felt different to use. In BO3 all the cars in a series seem to handle exactly the same.

The circuit racer section is the worst bit in BO3 though - it should have been great fun, but its anything but.

[zuum]

Does anyone else think Burnout 2 is better? Especially the crash mode.

I do. The crash mode was a bit slower so you had more time to plan out where you wanted to go. While there were obviously optimum routes in BO2, BO3 is too prescribed with it's reliance in having to hit cash multipliers.

I think the main thing that made BO2 more enjoyable for me was the traffic placement. BO2 seemed to reward you for taking the most outrageous lines round blind bends. There would often be a vehicle just around it but the traffic appeared to be placed in such a way that you could just squeeze by. BO3 still has some of that but I find myself approaching certain bends more cautiously because I know there's an obstacle on the racing line.

[K]

ianyone else noticed how much slower it is than the first two games?

Are you on crack? Play with the F1 car, then play Burnout 1. Burnout 3 looks like it's going at about double the speed.

[zuum]

Are you on crack? Play with the F1 car, then play Burnout 1. Burnout 3 looks like it's going at about double the speed.

I'd say it's too fast at times.

[Sng]

I'd say it's too fast at times.

I thought that too until I realised I don't have to try and stay flatout through the harder parts of each track.

[Aardvark]

I think you're all mad.

Either that, or I'm a middlecore loser

I must be one too. I think the reason I'm still enjoying it is that I have put in a few heavy sessions, and the rest of the time I just dip in for a nice quick burst of fun, drunken road rage competitions with housemates are great.

[routeburn]

I just dip in for a nice quick burst of fun

Last night I was trying to think of ways of comparing Animal Crossing with Burnout 3. Both are good in small doses, see?

I can enjoy AC for up to an hour until catching fish and insects becomes boring or Nook's shop shuts for the night.

I can enjoy Burnout 3 for up to an hour until the full-on sensory bombardment and meaningless reward system just bores me.

Opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of gameplay but strangely similar in the way they actually engage me as a gamer.

[Monkeyspill]

Crash mode is better in Burnout 2. Fact. All the gimmicks in Burnout 3 managed to dilute the brilliant crash formula.

I agree with that. And there's too many crash areas. Fifteen was far better because you could perfect each one.

[___]

So the inevitable backlash has begun eh.

Ah, the inevitable "the inevitable backlash has begun" post

You have to expect people to point out longevity and long term interest issues after a while when they've been playing a game which has plenty of them.

[Guest]

Ah, the inevitable "the inevitable backlash has begun" post

You have to expect people to point out longevity and long term interest issues after a while when they've been playing a game which has plenty of them.

Ah, the inevitrable "the inevitable backlash has begun post backlash post" has begun

[Project 2501]

Argh, well to be honest I was quite dissapointed in it.

I am well and truely glad that Criterion decided to add a degree of player/opposition interaction and combat to the game but this seems to have unsettled the balance of things to the point where it doesn't really feel like a Burnout game anymore. For starters the entire risk/reward structure introduced in burnout 1 and perfected in 2 seems to have been completely thrown out of the window, you earn so little boost from traditional examples of dangerous driving that they are hardly worth the effort anymore, you do seem to earn more for near misses than you used to, but that just brings me onto my next point...

...Where did all the traffic go? Burnout 1 had so much to crash into that it felt like a dodging sim alot of the time, whereas Burnout 2 toned it down to just the right level to be exiting but not too frustrating, Burnout 3 has such an uneven spread that leaves you with large stretches of nearly empty road and whatever crashes that do occur seem to come out of the blue because you simply weren't expecting to see anything, doing well in the game feels like a lottery now as earning boost is simply a case of barging an opponent into a wall and claiming a shitload of boost for it, assuming you can find someone to bash into said wall that is.

I also have a long list of minor gripes, the overdone presentation with uneccessarily intrusive little cutscenes between races that repeat ad nauseum throughout the game, the awful licensed soundtrack and irritating "street" DJ who you can thankfully disable, the class system that forces you to race against identical generic cars that differ only in paint job, the overly heavy steering that takes the fun out of gracefully drifting around corners and many others I can't be bothered to mention here. Oh yeah, I know it's been mentioned alot but aftertouch is a noble idea rendered totally pointless by the fixed-camera lottery-o-vision you're forced to watch it in.

Burnout 3 fels like it has had a lot of bling but not an awful lot of thought thrown at it .

EA/Criterion have tried to make their game as "xtreme" and street as possible but in the end have actually surgically removed alot of the feeling of risk, reward and danger in this installment. Burnout 3 was entertaining for an afternoon or two, but that's as far as its appeal lies with me.

Sorry to bitch, I still feel Burnout 3 is a reasonably accomplished generic "extreme" EA type racer, but it has none of the magic of its predecessors.

[ianwuk]

I agree with most of the points there. I don't think that Burnout 3 is worth a 10, 8 definitely, but not 10, it has some great ideas but it has EA stamped all over it which I do not think is a good thing. One thing is for sure, the Burnout series, since partnering with EA, will never be the same again which is a great shame.

[Jaysus]

you earn so little boost from traditional examples of dangerous driving that they are hardly worth the effort anymore

That's not really true. How much boost you earn per 'risk' is dependant on your position in the race. Find yourself a good 10 seconds behind the race leader or back in fifth when playing online and you'll find you get awarded much more boost for traditional methods of acquiring it. But I guess you have to actually play the game online for any length of time to know that...

[Jaysus]

...Where did all the traffic go? Burnout 1 had so much to crash into that it felt like a dodging sim alot of the time, whereas Burnout 2 toned it down to just the right level to be exiting but not too frustrating, Burnout 3 has such an uneven spread that leaves you with large stretches of nearly empty road and whatever crashes that do occur seem to come out of the blue because you simply weren't expecting to see anything, doing well in the game feels like a lottery now as earning boost is simply a case of barging an opponent into a wall and claiming a shitload of boost for it, assuming you can find someone to bash into said wall that is.

Again, not true. Playing the game for any length of time will see you become used to the points in a race where traffic is expected so you do plan for it. It may not be as scripted as the traffic in Burnout 2 (which would give you the same patterns each time you play), but you can learn to fight it. But again, you have to play the game for a decent length of time before that becomes possible.

[Beertiger]

Again, not true. Playing the game for any length of time will see you become used to the points in a race where traffic is expected so you do plan for it. It may not be as scripted as the traffic in Burnout 2 (which would give you the same patterns each time you play), but you can learn to fight it. But again, you have to play the game for a decent length of time before that becomes possible.

15hrs and i'm not a shit gamer, yet i kept having trouble. so much so that Burnout 3 morphed into Silent Hill 4.

[ianinthefuture]

I agree with that. And there's too many crash areas. Fifteen was far better because you could perfect each one.

BO2 comes out: "We want more crash junctions!"

BO3 comes out: "We want less crash junctions!"

[Project 2501]

Again, not true. Playing the game for any length of time will see you become used to the points in a race where traffic is expected so you do plan for it. It may not be as scripted as the traffic in Burnout 2 (which would give you the same patterns each time you play), but you can learn to fight it. But again, you have to play the game for a decent length of time before that becomes possible.

I know the traffic is still scripted, there just isn't nearly enough of it for their to be any real point to it.

And I too, have played the game for around 15 hours and just finished the supercar series before I lost all interest, maybe your position has some effect on the amount of boost you can get but I have seen little evidence of that in the single player game. I do not have Xbox Live and have no interest in playing the game online so I cannot test it out in that context.

Bottom line: Burnout 3 simply isn't that exiting to play, if I want to play a fun street racey type game then I'll stick to BO2, for the cathartic thrill and sense of danger I'll dig out F-Zero GX again where I have a real rush of speed and the satisfaction (and fear) of knowing that taking or being "taken down" really is the end of someones race.

[Jaysus]

I know the traffic is still scripted, there just isn't nearly enough of it for their to be any real point to it.

Well, I disagree.

I think this point (like your others) is far too vague to really strip away from the game's good points, which you have to admit, are plentiful - the game is keeping me up as late as 5am some nights - no game has done that to me since Street Fighter 2 on the SNES.

[Rowan Morrison]

maybe your position has some effect on the amount of boost you can get but I have seen little evidence of that in the single player game.

It's definintely there, you'll notice it more when you're in the lead. It's very hard to get a full boost bar in the lead, and the boost runs out very quickly too. When you fall back, the reverse happens. But your original point still stands: at the core of the BO3 ethos is risky driving. When you're in the lead, there's very little point to it, so being in the lead isn't much fun. It's often a relief when you''re the leader to crash, catch an opponent with aftertouch, and get a full boost bar.

This is not good compared to BO2, where the chaining system meant there was always a point to taking risks. When I'm in the lead toward the end of a long GP, and I don't really want to rerace the whole thing again, I'm going to drive conservatively because there's no reason for me to try and get boost - the risk is high and the reward is paltry. With chaining, I'd be madly trying to keep my boost bar active by any means necessary. Im BO3 that's often not an option. You simply can't stop a boost bar decaying when you're in the lead. That works well to even the field, but it's at the expense of the race leader's fun...